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The coal-burning Gen. James M. Gavin Power Plant at Cheshire, Ohio, near the Ohio River.

Obama's idea hits snag -

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's push to limit greenhouse gases not only has provoked an intense struggle with congressional Republicans but also is creating deep fissures in his own party.

As expected, Republicans such as Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio have vowed to try and kill the measure if Obama won't compromise.

But Voinovich's stance differs little from that of his Ohio colleague, Democrat Sherrod Brown, who is warning that without major changes, manufacturers and other electricity users in Ohio and all of the Midwest will bear the brunt of the cost.

Obama has not rolled out specific legislation,

but has called for a climate-change bill in his proposed budget for the federal spending year that begins in October. The concept is ambitious, the price tag is high, and every American would be affected.

Brown has joined 15 other Senate Democrats to modify any global warming bill favored by environmentalists and the administration. Because as many as 30 Senate Republicans also are likely to oppose such a bill, Brown and his group could block any measure he believes will impose heavy financial costs on Ohio.

"We need to make climate change work in a way in which ratepayers in Ohio don't get overwhelmed by price increases and manufacturing in our state doesn't go to China," Brown said. "We're working through on language to figure out how to do this."

Curbing global warming means a sweeping transformation of the American economy, and the issue is likely to consume lawmakers for much of the year. It pits environmental Democrats from the West Coast and the Northeast against Democrats from the Midwest, home to many of the nation's coal-fired power plants, which are largely responsible for America's output of greenhouse gases.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., has pledged to move a bill this spring, which suggests that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will be able to win House passage this year. But lobbyists and analysts are not convinced the Senate can marshal the 60 votes needed to end delaying tactics by opponents.

A global-warming bill places Brown squarely between two groups that have supported him: environmentalists and factory workers. Brown has made clear he wants to support a bill that would curb greenhouse gases.

The overwhelming majority of senators have accepted the science that humans have caused global warming through their coal-fired power plants, factories and cars. No longer can a politician simply oppose a global-warming bill without offering a plausible alternative.

"You can't beat something with nothing," said former Democratic Rep. Dennis Eckart of Cleveland. "From my view, the critical place to have a future is not to be a member of the world-is-flat-club, in other words denying global warming or man's contribution to it. Politicians, to be credible, have to be for something."

At the heart of Obama's proposal is a system called cap-and-trade. It's designed as a market solution that gives power companies a financial incentive to limit emissions of carbon dioxide.

It could work this way: Each utility plant would have an emission permit for every ton of carbon dioxide it sends into the air. Plants that dramatically reduce their emissions of the gas could sell their surplus permits to other plants that need them.

Under Obama's plan, the federal government would auction the permits to raise as much as $646 billion during the next decade. The administration wants to use some of that money to give Americans tax credits to offset higher electricity bills.

Those bills probably would soar in states such as Ohio, which has more than 20 large coal-powered plants supplying 85 percent of the state's electricity. Utility companies almost certainly would pass on the costs of the new CO2 permits to their customers.

"This hits Ohio really hard," Eckart said.

Voinovich said he worked hard to kill a similar bill last year that could have raised Ohioans' utility rates by nearly 50 percent.

Brown urged changes in last year's proposal, which he also opposed, and he's employing even sharper criticism of Obama's cap-and-trade plan.

"I support the (overall) Obama budget, but I am concerned about this cap-and-trade money because the burden will come to Ohio and the benefits are spread to 300 million Americans," Brown said. "That part of the budget is not acceptable."

Obama has proposed that Congress extend a tax credit for working families that amounts to $400 a year for individuals as a way to cushion the blow of higher costs. But skeptics doubt that credit will cover all the costs.

One idea that is gaining traction is known as cap-and-dividend. All money collected by the federal government through the auction of permits would be returned as a dividend to everyone with a Social Security number.

Other critics argue that cap-and-trade will impose a huge new federal regulatory scheme and a bureaucracy to enforce it. Instead, they contend the federal government could reach the same goal by levying a tax on carbon.

"The word tax is considered a political nonstarter; it's considered radioactive," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, a Washington organization that champions tough environmental laws.

"In an academic world, it's a superior idea. In the political world, it probably isn't."

Another complaint: Power companies might switch to cleaner-burning fuels, such as natural gas, to meet what will be increasingly tough federal standards. But that too would lead to higher utility bills.

"What you would see us doing under very stringent mid-term targets is retiring some of our coal plants prematurely and switching to natural gas," said Dan Riedinger, a spokesman for the Edison Electric Institute. "That does the trick initially. But it makes a lot of people unhappy because it drives up the price of natural gas."